PowerPoint: It’s not yes or no, it’s when and how

A great deal of research has been done on the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. Most of it has used student acceptance of PowerPoint as the measure of its effectiveness, and these results have overwhelmingly shown that students like PowerPoint. However, most studies measuring PowerPoint’s impact on learning have not shown any benefit from its use, and there is no shortage of articles blaming PowerPoint itself for these results. In this paper we show that the problem lies in the way in which PowerPoint is used rather than with the technology itself, and that more information is needed to fully understand how and when to use PowerPoint to enhance learning.

Article first published in “Research in Higher Education Journal”, Vol. 22 (2013), December. Reprinted with permission.